1988’s Baseball’s Greatest Gross Outs Trading Cards

Just last week while dropping in at the arcade to hang out with good friend to the Retroist, Phillip Cary, he surprised me with an awesome gift. An unopened pack of 1988 Baseball’s Greatest Gross Outs by Leaf that he had won at a recent auction for retro memorabilia.
So of course I had to open them. Thanks to Shawn Robare’s Branded in the 80s site I was able to learn that Inkpot Award winner B.K. Taylor was the illustrator for these groovy and gross pack of baseball stickers.

Now once I broke the seal on the pack the first thing that popped into my head was that by all means I wasn’t going to be enjoying this stick of 28 year old gum. Nope. Straight in the trash it went!
Right away I realized that on the back of some of the stickers – the card stock presented part of a poster image and thanks to Shawn I was shocked to learn that I would need 36 of the 88 sticker set to complete that poster.
While the backing of some of the other cards presented frightful facts about the players themselves like these two for Laidback Larry and Skinny Vinny!
Now most of these cards present a humorous look at the monsters…but there was one…and I can’t explain why but it really creeped me out. I present to you Cardinal Carl. Who might be waiting in the dark of your closet when you turn your back!
Here are the rest of the cards in the pack for your enjoyment:

So now I am going to have to head to eBay and try to find a complete collection of Baseball’s Greatest Gross Outs!

Searching through the alleys for useful knowledge in the city of Nostalgia. Huge cinema fanatic and sometimes carrier of the flame for the weirding ways of 80s gaming, toys, and television. When his wife lets him he is quite happy sitting in the corner eating buckets of beef jerky.